Category: Project Management

Introduction

In Winter 2015, I decided to fulfill a long-term career goal of attaining the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. Although different for everyone, my own reasons for wanting to become PMP certified were (in order of importance):

Learning. Studying for and passing the PMP exam would require me to learn a significant amount about project management, and in particular the methodologies, tools and techniques detailed in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).

Challenge. The reputation of difficulty in attaining the PMP attracted me to successfully achieving it.

Career development. As a functional and project manager, the PMP designation would increase my skills with my employer, and provide both company and personal legitimacy when interacting with customers and external stakeholders.

In September 2015 on my first attempt, I successfully passed the PMP exam with “Proficient” in 4 out of 5 process groups: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and “Moderately Proficient” in the last process group, Closing.

My objective with this post is to detail how I used agile project management methodologies to successfully study, and pass, the PMP exam in the hopes that someone else finds this approach useful in their studies.